cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/1695713
An excellent article by Melissa Gira Grant. An excerpt:
"In the 2000s, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal called social media sites a “playground for predators.” Blumenthal’s rhetoric hasn’t changed much in 15 years: Now he and h>is allies in this effort on the Hill speak of the platforms themselves as preying on children’s well-being…
For KOSA supporters on the right, like the think tank the Heritage Foundation, defining “harm” to children in this way—aligning with the broader reactionary movement to silence any opponents of the white, straight, and cis patriarchal order—is precisely the benefit of the bill. Democrats who say they support trans kids, though, seem to be unalarmed by the reasons a group like Heritage might back this bill."
If you’re in the US, https://www.stopkosa.com/ has a form to contact Congress. Or look up your Senators’ phone numbers here and call them directly. Tell them you want to oppose S. 1409, the Kids Online Safety Act because it won’t help keep kids safe and it’ll harm LGBTQ teens.
I’m so tired of this. You wanna protect your fucken kids? There are a myriad of apps and devices that restrict internet access and content according to your preferences. These bills are never about the children. If they were there would be a government sponsored class you could take to learn about internet privacy, safety, and how to setup safety measures for your family. This is about tech corporations and harming vulnerable communities. Fuck our corpo infested government.
KOSA is a terrible bill and we should absolutely oppose it. But we should not be surprised that both Democrats and Republicans support the bill; they’ve allied to support other anti-privacy bills as well. Remember SESTA /FOSTA? The vote in the Senate was 97-2. The EARN IT bill of 2022 was co-sponsored near equally by Democrats and Republicans. This is not a one-off, this is a pattern.
Republicans are objectively evil these days, point blank. But…
…that doesn’t excuse the Democrats in Congress for their own evil actions. Sponsoring or supporting anti-privacy legislation under the guise of “for the children” means that they’re either complicit or stupid. Neither of these is a trait we should want to see in a representative.
